Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Today’s question: Would we be better off if
more women held political office?

Yes, say nearly two in
three Americans, a Gallup poll reported Monday.

The question was, “Do
you think the country would be governed better or worse if more women were in political
office?” Sixty-three percent of Americans said better -- a jump from 57 percent
in 1995 and 2000. The trend bodes well for women candidates in this fall’s congressional
elections.

While the number of
women serving in Congress has been inching up – to a record 79 in the 435-member
House and 20 in the 100-member Senate – women are still just 18.5 percent of
the Congress. In the House, 60 women are Democrats and 19 are Republicans. In
the Senate, there are 16 Ds and four Rs.

Gallup didn’t ask why
people thought women would do better, but perhaps a Grateful Dead song has the
answer: “That’s right, the women are smarter.”

In any case, women
vote. Women were the majority of voters in 2012 and largely decided to keep
President Barack Obama in the White House and continue Democratic control of
the Senate, according to analyses of exit polls by the Center for American
Women in Politics at Rutgers.

Women don’t always
vote for woman candidates, of course. In the Senate race in Connecticut, men
split their votes evenly between Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Linda
McMahon, while “women showed a clear and decisive preference for Murphy,” who
won, the center said.

This time around, with
continued Democratic control of the Senate increasingly in doubt, Democrats are
pinning their hopes on Michelle Nunn to flip the red-state Georgia seat held by
retiring Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Democrat Nunn,
daughter of popular former Sen. Sam Nunn, is running against Republican
businessman David Perdue, former CEO of Reebok and other firms. Perdue beat
Rep. Jack Kingston, a 22-year House veteran, Tuesday in a GOP runoff election.

Neither Nunn nor Perdue has elective experience – and that may be a
plus. Forty-nine percent of Americans told Gallup the country would be governed
better by newcomers to office.

If the Georgia race is
pivotal and close, we might have to wait to learn which party will control the
Senate. If neither candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote Nov. 4,
there will be a runoff Dec. 2.

Nunn is one of six
women candidates running for open seats in five states. West Virginia is
poised to make state history by electing its first woman senator. The election
is between Democrat Natalie Tennant and Republican Shelley Moore Capito.

Four states have never
sent a woman to the House or Senate: Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi and Vermont.
But that could change. In Iowa, tea party favorite Joni Ernst, a Republican, is
in a tight race with Democrat Bruce Braley.

Two of the most
vulnerable Senate incumbents are Democratic women, Kay Hagan of North Carolina
and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Political prognosticators rate both races
tossups.

Whether a general
inclination to support more women in office translates into votes depends on how
individual candidates sell themselves and on the local dynamics of each race.

In 2012, Rep. Michelle
Bachmann, R-Minn., dropped her presidential bid after eking out just 5 percent
of the Iowa caucus vote. She’s retiring from the House but said this week she
might run for president again in 2016.

“Like with
anything else, practice makes perfect,” she said in an interview with Real
Clear Politics, adding that she had participated in 15 presidential debates.

No, unlike learning the
piano, for instance, practice doesn’t make perfect in politics. On that men and
women voters agree.

Still, if you’re
looking for clues about the elections this fall, it makes sense to watch the
women.